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UK anti-ID card campaign Gains Momentum

Posted by timothy on from the but-the-state-is-your-sincere-devoted-friend dept.

Jack writes "The British No2ID campaign, which opposes the creation of a National Identity Database to hold biometric data on all UK citizens, has created an online pledge as part of an effort to publicise their cause. The three-day old pledge has recently gained the attention of the blogging community, with bloggers bringing a thousand new signatories to the pledge today alone. Readers in the UK are invited to look at the No2ID FAQ on the plans for mandatory ID cards - some of it makes for scary reading." Update: 06/14 17:13 GMT by T : Side note: Tom Steinberg, director of MySociety.org (organizers of this petition) writes "The ID pledge is cool in that it is so big and successful, but it is a very small insight into what pledgebank.com can do." It's actually a much more general organizing tool.

5 of 380 comments (clear)

  1. Privacy vs "Justice" by Kaorimoch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think its pathetic that the intelligence community which failed abysmally to thwart 9/11 and then come up with crap schemes like this to trace and identify possible terrorists. I'm sorry but they should be looking at schemes to find terrorists that don't involve abusing a cictizen's right to privacy.

    I equate my right to privacy with my right to personal freedom so eat that you "freedom"-loving police-state-loving psychos.

    1. Re:Privacy vs "Justice" by Tune · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed. To police-state-lovers, 9/11 never meant more than a publicity stunt. The powers that be instinctively pointed away. Away from their failing intelligence and away from their internal problems. Afganistan was only periferally related, Iraq wasn't related at all. Neither were biometric data, RFID tags in passports, snipers at airports or SDI programmes related.

      Fact of the matter is that although a lot of damage is being done to our civil rights (and world peace) terrorist scenarios in western countries are still as real as ever.

      The 9/11 hijackers did not carry forged IDs and neither did Timothy McVeigh. They never needed to. It may be conforting to think of terrorists as bearded Bin-Laden lookalikes, but in reality a terrorist may as well be a model citizen, a patriot with no record right until the moment he blows something up.

      And since we haven't found a descent answer to terrorism in the last couple of years, maybe we should cool down and stop panicing.

  2. It's the database that is the real problem! by Timo_UK · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For years the media were just talking about the ID cards, and never mentioned the database. Either because they wanted to distract from this fact (conspiracy theory... ?) or they were just too stupid to see the actual problem (Journalists, eh..). In my eyes the database is the actual problem! This is why you are not required to carry your card with you: The police can x-check you against the database at any time anyway and this way can always find out who you are, even if you don't have your card on you! The UK government keeps saying 'Other countries had this for years', and THEY HAVE NOT! They had cards, but NO CENTRAL DATABASE!!

    --
    Timo's Audio Software http://www.esseraudio.com
  3. What's in it for them by CmdrGravy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find it amazing that a Labour government is the one proposing such a scheme, had this been proposed under the conservatives it would have died on it's feet.

    I think the reason they are proposing it is firstly so they can pretend they are taking serious steps to address terrorism, illegal immigration and benefit fraud and secondly because all the companies who may well be involved in providing an ID card system are telling them what a great idea it is.

    Worryingly a lot of random people I talk to about this are in favour of a scheme which does all the things the ID cards will supposedly accomplish and so are broadly in favour of the scheme in general. However as soon as they think about the actual practicalities of the scheme, especially the bit where they end up having to pay for it, they begin to change there minds.

    The trouble is that this ID card scheme is badly thought out with very few clear achievable goals and hugely expensive, the bottom line is that the money could be spent on more effective and more practical measures which do not end up in a giant IT fiasco and attempts to create all knowning databases on all of us.

  4. What an uninsightful comment by Sanity · · Score: 5, Insightful
    People are complaining about a compulsory ID card. Registration in this database is voluntary.

    See the difference?